New Industry Organisation to Launch

Open Invitation to PRO Officers, IT directors in all PR Agencies, Agency CFOs and MDs, Account Managers, software developers, news agencies, measurement and evaluation firms, PR planners, PR-techies and anoraks.

Leeds Metropolitan University's Centre for PR Studies today issues an open invitation for all interested parties to attend the Inaugural Meeting of the XPRL Steering Group in London on 21st November 2001.

The meeting will kick off a major technical initiative for the PR industry. The aim is to agree formats for how computer data on PR campaigns is stored and shared across the Internet.  Agreed formats, or "schemas", will help computer and internet technology to dramatically slash the amount of information PR professionals need to retype or recreate PR material and the data associated with planning, managing and accounting for the success of PR campaigns.  The XPRL Steering Group hopes that agreed schemas will sharpen planning to make PR more effective, dramatically reduce operating costs of PR campaigns to make PR more efficient, and radically improve vital accountability to make PR a more essential part of an organisation's day-to-day activities.

This is an open industry initiative. It will only work if there is access for all interested parties and an open organisation. The inaugural meeting is open to all interested parties who will vote on the constitution and committee of the new organisation.

ePR has taken root in PR, but there is a massive roadblock. Sharing data within organisations, between organisations and their agencies, between agencies, between agencies and new distributors and evaluators is hampered by a lack of agreement on the format of the data - the schemas. Agreed schemas are now critical for us to share information across the internet. If we can agree data formats for the common PR activities then we believe we can make PR a quantum leap more efficient, effective and essential to every organisation.

The initiative is shaped and backed by the Institute of Public Relations, the Public Relations Consultant's Association and notable industry leaders including WeberShandwick, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Freshtoast, Lexis PR, Durrants, PRNewswire, eNow, Text 100, Echo Research, MBPrecis, Media Report and many more. In addition, practitioners and academics from the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have registered interest in becoming involved in the further development of XPRL.

For further information, please contact: 

XPRL Steering Group, Leeds Metropolitan University, Centre for PR Studies, Beckett Park Campus, Leeds, LS6 3QS.  Telephone 0113 283 2600. 

Acting Chair until 21st November, Mark Adams.  Telephone 07801 491 610.